Ditch The Charade And Cut To The Chase Loke

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From Terence Netto
Speculation that outside forces are using proxies in DAP to make sure that Lim Guan Eng does not make it to the top 30 places in polls next month may have the effect of helping rather than hindering the incumbent party chairman.
From the top 30 place holders the party selects its principal office-bearers.
It’s unthinkable an incumbent chairman, specially one of Lim’s stature, would be unable to retain a lofty position in the top 30.
But signs have grown the past several months that Lim’s star is on the wane in the party, stemming from popular distaste over his disagreements with Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow, followed by smouldering tensions with Steven Sim, Chow’s designated successor after the next general election.
Reportedly, secretary-general Loke Siew Fook and deputy chairman Nga Kor Ming are behind the move to marginalise the contentious Lim.
Loke has denied the story, opting for cover in the tired, old cliches of sending Chinese New Year greetings to party cadres when explaining widely disseminated photos of him and Nga posing together, exuding CNY fraternity.
Factional battles are endemic to democratic party politics. In fact, it is a sign of the health of the body politic.
So why hide behind meaningless cliches meant to beguile supporters away from what’s the real score within the party.
Why try to paper over healthy divisions by trotting out the cliches on unity when they serve no purpose except to mislead?
Why be like their Pakatan Harapan partner, PKR, where it is an open secret that members are deeply disgruntled with the way the unity government has led the country in the last 27 months, but are unable, except for MP Hassan Karim, to vent their views?
DAP, after soft-pedalling their frustrations about the government in these last 27 months, should want to be open about matters within their party.
For the better part of four decades Lim has been in the upper echelons of the DAP leadership.
He has suffered to espouse their cause and deserves respect for that.
But if he cannot transition to elderly statesmanship in preference to jousting with Chow and settling scores with Sim, he will make a nuisance of himself.
However, word that outside forces want a compliant DAP to one that has stormy petrel Lim in its central working committee may redound to saving the chairman’s bacon.
That speculation apart, DAP must be imaginative in finding ways to ease their ageing leadership cohort into productive retirement.
That it can do by resisting the easy temptation of soft-pedalling issues within the party instead of being candid about them.
This candour will go some ways towards dispelling the charade of unity that passes for overall leadership of the unity government. - FMT
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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